How I Use "Chrysanthemum" By Kevin Henke in Mixed Speech Therapy Groups

Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henke is an uplifting story a about starting back-to-school and learning to love and accept yourself regardless of what your peers think or say. In this post, I will share how I use Chrysanthemum in my mixed speech and language therapy groups to target multiple goals. 

Story Summary

Prior to the first day of school, Chrysanthemum thought her name was absolutely perfect. She loved and appreciated her name. On the first day of school, Chrysanthemum's classmates started to bully her and make fun of her name. They giggled and told her that her name was too long. Chrysanthemum started to doubt her uniqueness. She "wilted." With the help of a special teacher, she regained her confidence and did not just think her name was perfect but knew it was. 

3 Ways I Use My Movement Dice in Speech Therapy

I LOVE a good Dollar Tree haul. I found these foam dry erase dice and immediately thought of the endless possibilities for my preschool and elementary students. I needed an activity that would engage all my students, and could be adapted to target several different goals. I also wanted a go-to activity that could be adapted and repeated throughout the year. In this post I am going to share with you 3 different ways I use my movement dice in speech therapy.

What I came up with, was the idea of creating movement dice. The first thing I needed to do was create the 6 exercises to attach to each side of the die. My favorite resource for picture symbols with a vast library of content is Smarty Symbols. Under the category of "exercises" and "actions" I found "squat, clap, marching (I renamed knee lifts), hop, jumping jacks," and "arm circles." Each dry erase spot measured 2-1/2 inches in diameter. I printed the circles on cardstock, laminated them and glued them to the die. 

Get Funded with Donor's Choose

Funding for speech therapy materials is scarce for public school speech-language pathologists. Limited funding and a large caseload often means purchasing only a handful of new materials each year. In addition, public school speech-language pathologists frequently buy their own materials in order to meet students' needs and address target goals properly.

DonorsChoose.org is a United States 501 non-profit organization that connects local donors with educators to fund public school classroom projects. Since it's founding in 2000 by a high school teacher, DonorsChoose.org has funded over 1,000,000 classroom projects.  When I discovered DonorsChoose.org, I did a little research and then started the process of creating a project of my own.

Best Dollar Tree Hacks for Speech Therapy

Are you on a school supply budget? Do you wish you had more money left over after you shopped for your own children's school supplies? Are you looking for bargains that will help you stretch your dollar for speech therapy? I have shopped at Dollar Tree for several years now, and I am always impressed with the office supply items and back-to-school resources that are available in late summer. Dollar Tree has also marketed many different patterns and designs when it comes to poly-folders and composition books. 

In this post, I want to share some of the resources I've found at Dollar Tree and give you a few new ideas for using everyday items you find at Dollar Tree.

Top 10 Back-to-School Books for Speech Therapy

Are you looking for a fun back-to-school read aloud to start the year with? Do you want an attention grabber that will spark an excitement for learning this year? For me, starting a new school year is an exciting time of the year. New room decor, new school clothes, and newly sharpened pencils. But what I get excited about is NEW books!

In this post, I want to share with you my top 10 back-to-school books for speech therapy and why I recommend them.

8 Tips for the New School SLP

As a speech-language pathologist, I have had the privileged of working in several different settings both full time and PRN. As a school based SLP, I continue to work in various PRN positions during the summer and throughout the school year as I have time. My heart and energy, however, is poured  out in serving public school students with disabilities. My students make me smile and laugh everyday.

If you are making the switch this year to public school, there are a few tips I want to share with you to help you make the transition. So don't fret because change is always a little scary.

Here are my 8 Tips for the New School SLP:

TPT Back-to-School Site Wide Sale!

For many educators, summer vacation is almost over. For others, you may still have a month of rest and relaxation. Regardless of your contract start date, you do not want to miss the Teachers Pay Teachers Site Wide Sale!

August 1st and 2nd are special days for educators and TPT, and I want to share this sale with you! During this 2-day sale, you can save up to 25% off your total purchases using the #BTSReadyWithTpT code at checkout.

I want to highlight some special additions to my store for back-to-school and fall.

5 Reasons Why I Chose the Happy Planner PLUS a FREE Download

Are you looking for a new planner? What features do you look for? What type of layout do you like? How much do you want to spend on a planner? 

During the summer, I take time to relax, binge watch a show on Netflix, and get inspired with new ideas for the upcoming school year. One important task I take on in the summer is finding my ideal planner for the next school year. I don't write much down during the summer so I tend to use my iPhone for planning the few appointments I have each week.  So when I started looking at planners for the 2017-18 school year, I searched Pinterest and Amazon, watched You Tube videos, viewed online store products like Office Max and Wal Mart, and used Google search to figure out what would be the best choice for me. In this post, I want to share my new Create 365 Happy Planner with you, show you some of it's features and provide you with a few resources and ideas specifically for educators and speech-language pathologists. 

Speech Room Organization with Bins

Do you have piles of therapy materials set aside for the week? Are your piles and stacks of materials getting mixed up and disorganized? I have found an organizational strategy that works to keep the stacks and piles organized. In a previous post, I talked about organizing your speech therapy room using Command Hooks. You can read about how to utilize that vertical space in your therapy room HERE. 

In this post, I am going to show you how I organize my grade-level group materials in different bins.